Fiscal Policy, Inequality and the Poor in the Developing World

Nora Lustig

No 1612, Working Papers from Tulane University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Using comparable fiscal incidence analysis, this paper examines the impact of fiscal policy on inequality and poverty in twenty-five countries for around 2010. Success in fiscal redistribution is driven primarily by redistributive effort (share of social spending to GDP in each country) and the extent to which transfers/subsidies are targeted to the poor and direct taxes targeted to the rich. While fiscal policy always reduces inequality, this is not the case with poverty. Fiscal policy increases poverty in four countries using US\$1.25/day PPP poverty line, in 8 countries using US$2.50/day line, and 15 countries using the US\$4/day line (over and above market income poverty). While spending on pre-school and primary school is pro-poor (i.e., the per capita transfer declines with income) in almost all countries, pro-poor secondary school spending is less prevalent, and tertiary education spending tends to be progressive only in relative terms (i.e., equalizing but not pro-poor). Health spending is always equalizing except for Jordan.

Keywords: Fiscal Incidence; Social Spending; Inequality; Poverty; Developing Countries. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 H22 H5 I3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-10, Revised 2017-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lam, nep-ltv and nep-pbe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://repec.tulane.edu/RePEc/pdf/tul1612r.pdf Revised Version, August 2017 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Fiscal policy, inequality and the poor in the developing world (2016)
Working Paper: Fiscal Policy, Inequality and the Poor in the Developing World (2016)
Working Paper: Fiscal policy, inequality, and the poor in the developing world (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tul:wpaper:1612

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